Wrapping up life in the UK

February-July 2018 

Well, that's it. All good things must come to an end. Nearly three and a half years in London, and it was a blast.

Our eventful trip to Iceland was our last European excursion before leaving London. We made sure to spend our last few months in the UK enjoying it as much as we could.

The first thing to enjoy was the snow and ice. The "Beast from the East" swept in as we arrived from Iceland, resulting in London actually being colder than Iceland for almost a week. On the first day of snow, London looked beautiful covered in puffy white snow in the sun, especially near my work on Chancery Lane. By day two, London was a slushy mess under grey skies and it was just a bit grim.

We began to almost rediscover London in light of our impending departure. At the top of the list (weather permitting) were picnic trips to the parks. Hampstead Heath is probably my pick of the bunch - even on hot, busy days when nearly all other parks are crammed full of people (many obnoxiously playing their music) you can find an isolated spot on the Heath to relax. We were also lucky enough to catch the start of the infamous summer 2018 heatwave in London - though I think by late July Londoners had probably had enough!

At Hampstead Heath

Sticking with the outdoors theme, we also explored outside of London a bit more. On an April weekend we walked the Balcombe circular, a 5 hour amble/trudge through the picturesque Sussex countryside, through farms, mud, forest and small towns punctuated with a stop in a cosy English pub (a mandatory part of any countryside walk).

Balcombe circular

In early summer we had a day trip to the New Forest (our camping plans were unfortunately thwarted by a spectacular lightning storm) where Rach made sure she was bitten by a New Forest pony.

New Forest Pony and Rach: literally seconds before disaster.

These trips reinforced my thoughts about the British countryside: nothing is particularly striking, grand, or stunning - however, the landscape has a beauty in its smaller scale, with a cosy, comfortable and green feel to it. Oh, and a delicious cask ale in a country pub is a magnificent and essential part of it all. Ah, pubs! They'll truly be one of the things I miss most about the UK and Ireland.

Just a standard central London pub (Butcher's Hook and Cleaver, I think).

And another (Old Bank of England).

A Guinness in Temple Bar, Dublin.

And probably my favourite pub in the world.

We also had a trip out to Margate, the former Victorian seaside resort now turned trendy hipster town. We walked from Broadstairs, around the tip of Kent to Margate, and spotted the colourful, old fashioned beach huts. The huts were fitted to cater to families enjoying that essential element of a British a trip to the seaside - a cup of tea.

Broadstairs

Two important parts of London have always been the food and shows and we loaded up on them. We finally got to try the famous "meatfruit" by Heston at the Oriental Hotel - delectable. We made sure to explore more food at nearby Broadway Market - the particular standouts being the Butchies Fried Chicken burger, and the sourdough at Pavillion. 

We got to a couple of entertaining burlesque shows.

We made sure to catch a couple of shows at the West End. Hamilton was great, somehow being both politically relevant and culturally modern while telling the story of 18th century federal vs state power struggles in the US. Wicked was also good, again having some political relevance given the story's focus on persecution (in a magical land).

There was also other happenings in London - the gigantic floating art in the Serpentine in Hyde Park, the positive and joyous London Pride March, and the definitely not so joyous anti-Trump march.

Those are army helicopters over Primrose Hill - presumably Trump's security as he'd just arrived in the UK that afternoon

Even Rach got involved in the protests.

It was also a time for goodbyes - and lots of them. We had a few trips out of London to see family in Tenby, Darlington, Dublin and Northumberland.

Rolling Stones in Edinburgh

Unlike Sam Smith, I'm not at all good at goodbyes and it was quite emotional saying farewell to family and friends. There are some where we we'll definitely keep in touch and meet again. We'll be back to the UK at some point, but there were a lot who, through age, time, distance or busy lives that we don't know if we'll ever see again and those were the hardest.

And finally - one big (little) goodbye to Freddie. Our hamster has gone to a better place.  Literally. He's now living with our friend Rosie who takes much better care of him than we ever did, spoiling him so much he actually seems to have gotten bigger.